Montana Rescue (The Wildes of Birch Bay Book 2) (4 page)

“I can find better people to sleep with.”

Nick smiled, feeling less lonely just talking to his brother. He hoped Nate
would
come home. Forward steps and all that. They could all use some. But he also wouldn’t bet on it. Nate had even more issues than their mom when it came to being here. And Nick couldn’t blame him.

They signed off, and Nick made a quick decision and left through the back door. They had a small section of lake access on their property, as well as a boat dock. Their sister had spent many evenings there over the years.
Searching for herself.
So he decided that he could use a little searching himself.

And just maybe while he was at it, he’d see a certain red-and-white helicopter fly over.

Chapter Four

H
arper switched the aircraft’s radio over to the station monitoring search and rescue missions as she flew, and blew out a soft breath at the lack of emergencies being reported. Not that she would have done anything if she’d heard a distress call. She no longer volunteered for the valley’s SAR program. But that didn’t mean she didn’t continue to listen in on a regular basis. With the mountains around them, and the entire area a prime spot for outdoor activities, too many people routinely got lost or hurt. And occasionally, someone didn’t make it out alive.

Every time that happened, it stole another piece of her heart. Not because she knew the casualties personally, but because she felt a deep-seated need to take care of the area and all the people in it. She’d always been that way. Or she had until . . .

Since Thomas’s death . . .

She gritted her teeth and pushed the 212 harder. Thomas
shouldn’t
have died. They’d been a team. They’d been the best thing she could ever imagine.

Hurt and anger mixed as she swept out over Flathead Lake, but she ignored all of it. She was returning from dropping off a team of corporate executives at a guest ranch not far from here—with a pickup scheduled for Sunday afternoon to take them back to Missoula International—and she had her aircraft pointed toward home. Only, there was nothing waiting for her at her house except another long evening alone, and she suddenly couldn’t do it. She didn’t want to be home. In the house that Thomas had built for them.

And she most definitely didn’t want to be alone.

She peered at the ground as she passed over the area, knowing her parents would love to see her. They hadn’t been shy recently in pointing out that she didn’t visit enough. And she didn’t. But her parents’ house wasn’t where she wanted to be, either. So she headed north along the eastern shoreline. Toward Wilde Cherry Farm. And she called herself a fool as she did it.

But she rationalized her move with facts. She hadn’t talked to Nick since dropping him off Sunday morning, and she
had
promised to give him a ride back to his truck. Therefore, she should check on the state of his truck repairs.

Of course, she could call. Or text. She had his number.

But she didn’t want to call or text.

Only, as she neared the orchard, her inner voice spoke up once again, having one single word to say to her.
Fool.
Because she could see Nick from her altitude, and she recognized the quick zing of attraction for what it was. He was behind a push mower in one the fields, working between two rows of trees, and she would almost swear that she could make out each and every muscle group bunching under his T-shirt as he moved.

She knew better, of course. She was too far up to really be able to see the sculpted dips and valleys of his upper torso. But that didn’t keep her from imagining what it would look like. Same as she’d done all week. The man turned her on in a way that she should definitely avoid.

She hovered above him, lowering only until he stopped what he was doing and peered up. He tugged earbuds from his ears and shaded his eyes with one hand—and Harper bit her lip at the sight. Sweaty, a little rumpled, and a whole lot hot. The man was definitely too good-looking.

Either that, or she’d hit middle age early and was having her first hot flash.

She tilted the helo a couple of times, “waving” the blades at him, and smiled when he lifted a hand in return. Then she headed for the open field where she’d put down the last time she’d been there. She saw Nick move in the same direction, and danged if her fingers didn’t begin to twitch with excitement. She was happy to see him. And that feeling was as foreign to her as the fact that she’d intentionally sought him out.

As she lowered to the ground, she silently instructed herself to get a grip. He was simply a hot guy. There were plenty of hot guys in the world. Hotness didn’t mean anything.

Unless she decided to do something about it.

After letting the machine cool off, she shut it down, but she continued sitting in the pilot’s seat as Nick neared. She thought about the fact that he was younger than her. Then she pictured the more-than-willing, much-younger woman she’d seen wrapped around him after his win Saturday night. He’d seemed quite content with someone like that. And chances were he’d gotten over his crush on
her
years ago, anyway.

Except, she’d seen the heat in his eyes Sunday morning.

She might have tried to convince herself that’s not what it had been, but she hadn’t believed it, even then. He was attracted to her.

And
she
was attracted to
him
.

She jumped to the ground before he could make it all the way across the field, and headed through the grass to meet him. His smile was broad by the time she reached his side, and she couldn’t help but smile in return. And subtly check him out. His T-shirt clung to his body—she could definitely make out the outlines of his muscles now—and his dark hair was damp and mussed.

Nick motioned behind her. “You do know that isn’t a helicopter parking lot, right?”

She glanced over her shoulder, taking the moment to pull in a deep breath. He even smelled good. Manly good. “Wouldn’t take much to make it one.” She turned back. “A small concrete pad. A couple of tie-downs.” She gave a lazy one-shoulder shrug. “It’s totally doable.”

His blue eyes sparkled. “Yet you don’t seem to have a problem landing it on the grass, either. In fact, I’d be willing to bet you wouldn’t have a problem putting it down most anywhere. Not if your flying abilities the other day are anything to go by.”

Her smile widened at his reminder of their prior conversation.

“Not
most
anywhere,” she corrected. “
Any
where. But that’s because my balls are bigger than yours.”

Nick looked her over then. Slowly. And his scrutiny lit goose bumps along her skin. This was why she’d come here instead of to her parents’ house. Because Nick Wilde made her feel. And whether that dredged up guilt or not, she wanted to feel.

When his gaze returned to hers, his direct stare sent a shiver down her spine. “You might have balls,” he started, his voice dropping lower, “but I could take you on size.”

She gulped. Things had suddenly turned intense.

Panic snatched at her, and she glanced away. She had to change the subject. She wasn’t ready for this. Turning her body so she was at a right angle to him, she slowed her breathing and took in the lake. It glistened in the afternoon sunlight. Staring at it, Nick’s hotness temporarily evaporated, and she was suddenly overwhelmed with love for this area. Not that she’d ever not loved her hometown, but her gratitude seemed to be larger today. Her senses sharper.

When she turned back, once again having herself under control and pretending they hadn’t just been flirting, she silently begged him to do the same. “Heard when your truck will be ready yet?”

“Tomorrow afternoon.”

“Did you still want me to take you?” Her heart beat faster as she asked the question.

“If you don’t mind.” He’d clearly picked up on her need to back off, and he put an additional foot of space between them. Then he motioned with his head toward the path leading out of the field. “I need a break. Want to take a walk since you’re here?”

It was her turn to nod.

She hadn’t meant to get flirty with him, and now she didn’t mean for them to be so serious. There had to be a balance. But she didn’t know how to get to that point yet. So she walked. And she enjoyed the scenery as they went.

They moved through the fields side by side, skirting around cherry trees—whose branches were filled with tiny green cherries—until they came out on a ridge providing an even better view of the lake. They stopped at the edge, and she took in the clear water and the mountains on the far side. There was still snow on the peaks, and the sky behind them was the kind of vivid blue that had always made her know she’d return to Montana after leaving the army.

Without warning, her shoulders relaxed. She’d been carrying too much tension since the accident, she knew that, but she’d been unable to shed any of it. Today, though, a bit of it seeped from her body.

“I forget how much I miss home until every time I visit,” Nick said.

She looked at him. His words made him sound lonely. “Do you come home often?”

“Often enough. A few times a year. But . . .” He shook his head. “I come home and I look at this view and I suck in the smell of the air, and . . . I know I’m not that far away, but the air here is different. I used to be here during visits, and do nothing but think of how soon I could leave again. But now, I’m already concerned that my father will return before I’m ready to go.”

“Then don’t go.”

He chuckled drily. “But I don’t live here.” He blew out a breath, his cheeks puffing with the motion, then shook his head once again as if flinging his thoughts from his mind. “How about you?” He turned to her. “How long have you been home?”

“Four years.” Sort of. The west shore wasn’t really
home
, even though Lakeside was where she lived now. She intended to end her words there, but found herself continuing. “Thomas and I spent a couple of years traveling after we both got out of the army. We wanted to experience more, you know? Live in different parts of the world on our own terms. We got out at twenty-two, then came home at twenty-four. Or, we came
here
. Thomas wasn’t originally from the valley, but he’d visited as a kid. His parents had a summer home on the lake at one point, and they used to ski up in Whitefish . . .” She trailed off as she thought about why they’d stopped coming to Montana. Why they’d never been willing to accept her as part of Thomas’s life.

“Did you know him then?”

She shook her head. “We were only kids. I never met him until after we both enlisted, and that was on the other side of the world.” She glanced at Nick. “Strange how things happen, huh?”

“Sounds like fate to me.”

“Fate?” She shot him a disbelieving look. “You a romantic, Wilde? A big-time charmer like you?”

He chuckled. “Hardly. Okay, then, a happy coincidence? I mean, his parents had to like that, right? If they’d vacationed here in the past. Him meeting a girl from the same area must have been ideal. Nice reason to visit again.”

She fought to hide her true feelings. “They would have preferred he meet someone from California.”

“Why is that?”

She shrugged and went back to staring out at the lake. “That’s where they live. They didn’t like it when he signed up for the army and appreciated it even less when he never returned home.”

“He didn’t get along with them?”

“They just saw the world through different lenses.” She slid a sideways glance toward Nick, wondering if she was sharing too much, but he seemed genuinely interested. That’s when she realized that she
wanted
to talk about Thomas. It’d been too long since she’d done anything but think of her husband in anything other than a bad light.

Yet, Thomas had been an honorable man. He’d entered the military for a noble cause.

“They came from money,” she told Nick. “So much that Thomas wouldn’t have had to work if he hadn’t wanted to. But Thomas was their only child, so his dad expected him to follow in his footsteps. Work in the family business. Only, Thomas was dead set on enlisting.”

“What kind of business?”

“Vacation resorts. They have them all over the world. Third-generation business that his great-grandfather started with a small inheritance and a dream.” She repeated the words as she’d heard them said so many times.

“And Thomas wasn’t interested?”

“It’s not that he wasn’t interested in the business, he was just
more
interested in other things. He’d grown up listening to his maternal grandfather tell stories of his time in the service. And that’s what Thomas wanted to do.” She couldn’t bring herself to share the additional reasoning behind Thomas’s mind-set.

“You two had a lot in common . . . didn’t your grandfather serve, too?”

“Good memory. And yes, a lot in common.” They’d often seemed like one person.

They’d had similar outlooks in life—to live for the moment. They’d both been vigilant about maintaining right from wrong. About seeing that no one was left behind—in any fashion, whether that meant vacationers on a mountaintop or comrades in the desert. And they’d both wanted to pass their love of living for the moment on to their kids.

But at the same time, she’d often wondered if Thomas’s life motto hadn’t been kept alive more by her than by him. She’d certainly heard that accusation enough.

“You loved him a lot.” Nick said, not making it a question, and she nodded mutely.

“I loved him a lot,” she whispered. “From the very first moment that we met.”

She really hadn’t intended to talk about her husband when she’d set out to come here today. Or had she? Wasn’t that why Nick had given her his phone number?

But how had he known that she needed to talk about Thomas?

They stood in silence for several more minutes, and she thought about her marriage. Losing Thomas had never once crossed her mind when they were married. They were supposed to grow old together.